diaries of a cat named virtute
philosophical meowderings about life and community
Gumption and I have been following the Jays for the whole season, but recently Virtute's decided to start watching too. Since the Blue Jays are on a 9 game winning streak and are starting to look like the World Series contenders they were supposed to be last year naturally I asked him if he… Continue reading Episode Fifteen: Virtute Explains the Etymology of Bandwagons
Last week Virtute got into his first real fight. We had been feeding the clowder of stray cats around our house and inch by inch they started to become territorial. While Gumption was pretty curious, Virtute was very anxious. Eventually one of them, the one called "Lunchbox", charged at the window and attacked Virtute through… Continue reading Episode Fourteen: The Art of War
For as long as I remember Virtute and I have been debating the merits of Drake as a Toronto rapper. I've generally fallen on the Drake-hater bandwagon and Virtute proudly wears his Team Drizzy t-shirt to this day. So I figured I had to at least ask him what he thought about Drake being the… Continue reading Episode Thirteen: Drake
It's been a busy few months here. There's been new kittens, art projects, conferences, house warmings, and generally still adjusting to our new neighbourhood. I've been feeling overtired and overworked and so I asked Virtute what he does for self-care. He stared blankly for a minute. So I asked again. He finally looked my way,… Continue reading Episode Twelve: Collective Care
Recently we welcomed a new kitten named Gumption into our house. It's been about a month so I checked in with Virtute to see how he's handled the transition. He responded, "When Gumption first arrived I really felt as though my world got immensely smaller. It's such an intimate process to share space and it… Continue reading Episode Eleven: Sharing Space
Virtute and I share a birthday. He turned three this year and was pretty excited. So I asked him what precisely about birthdays makes him so happy. He responded, "If all we are is just the stories we tell, then naturally birthdays mark a new chapter. It's a time to reflect on all the adventures you've… Continue reading Episode Ten: Birthdays
Virtute and I live in a house of artists and recently I asked him what it was like. He replied, "Art plays such an important role in our struggles, it allows us to break the barriers between future, past, and present. Frankly, Jenny said it best when she said it was like being on the… Continue reading Episode Nine: Art
Today I commented on how lovely Virtute's cave was and he astutely corrected me stating, "it's a crypt - crypts are cave-like dwellings that are produced by humans." So I had to ask, "but then what are caves?". Virtute was not amused and simply looked off and said, "they are made by the creator and… Continue reading Episode Eight: Crypts and Caves
I've been thinking a lot about the origins of baseball lately and about how the stories we tell about its so-called begginings are so bound up in the settler colonial myth. So I asked Virtute what he thought. He peered down from his cat condo and sighed, "like any game, baseball is rooted in a… Continue reading Episode Seven: the Origin of Things
Virtute spent the morning looking outside my window watching the flakes of snow pile up on the alley beside our house. I asked him what he was thinking about and he responded, "Snow." I asked, "What about it?". And he said, "There was a time back in the early 90s when a young white dancehall… Continue reading Episode Six: Virtute contemplates snow
diaries of a cat named virtute 